For the second consecutive winter, bitter weather threatens to turn the surface of the Great Lakes into a vast, frozen plain.
Nearly 81 percent of the lakes’ surface area was covered with ice, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reported Friday. That was down slightly from more than 85 percent the previous day — a glitch that probably happened because strong winds broke apart some ice and created open spots detected by satellites, said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the lab in Ann Arbor.
But with forecasts calling for frigid weather at least through the end of the month, the ice cover may keep expanding, he said. It’s grown rapidly as temperatures have plunged this month, nearly doubling over the past couple of weeks.
Records show the lakes’ most widespread freeze was 94.7 percent in 1979. The ice cover topped out at 92.2 percent last March.
Nearly 81 percent of the lakes’ surface area was covered with ice, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reported Friday. That was down slightly from more than 85 percent the previous day — a glitch that probably happened because strong winds broke apart some ice and created open spots detected by satellites, said George Leshkevich, a physical scientist with the lab in Ann Arbor.
But with forecasts calling for frigid weather at least through the end of the month, the ice cover may keep expanding, he said. It’s grown rapidly as temperatures have plunged this month, nearly doubling over the past couple of weeks.
Records show the lakes’ most widespread freeze was 94.7 percent in 1979. The ice cover topped out at 92.2 percent last March.
I think it's inevitable that they'll slip through the electric barriers, if they haven't already.